eBook - fact or fiction?

February 20, 2008

What will it take for eBooks to take off?

eBooks are one of those technologies that have been "the next big thing" for years but never quite seems to hit the big time. They're basically books in an electronic format, designed to be read on portable devices capable of storing hundreds of novels. Think of it like an iPod for your book collection.

This week the eBook is making another big push, with two of Britain's biggest publishers, Random House and Hachette, revealing they're ready to offer eBooks by some of their top writers such as Ian McEwen and Delia Smith.

What's holding eBooks back? The lack of devices? The lack of content? The fact that people are still attached to DTM (Dead Tree Medium)?

I'd say it's a combination of all those factors, even though individually they don't stand up. There are plenty of eBook-compatible devices around, and a few have have had good reviews and plenty of publicity. Amazon US is plugging the Kindle eBook reader on the front page of the site, although it retails for $US399 - for which you can buy a hell of a lot of paperbacks. The Sony Reader is slightly more affordable at $US299.

The iLiad looks interesting and has had good reviews - it doesn't use a traditional LCD screen so it's supposed to be easier on the eyes. Still, at a whopping $US699, it's not going to make it into many Christmas stockings.

Technology-wise these eBook readers may be up to the the task, but I can't see them going mainstream until they can get down to the $US100 mark - which won't happen until they go mainstream. It's the classic chicken and egg conundrum. Perhaps a new player will step in to revolutionise the market, like Apple did with the iPod.

I don't think lack of content is a major issue, but it really depends which format you're after. It seems that a lot of the new books on Amazon have a Kindle edition option. It might take yet another format war before the Book takes off, which could get ugly considering Sony is one of the players. Sony's trash-talking would make Muhammad Ali blush - just ask the poor suckers in the HD DVD camp. Which eBook format or device is technically superior won't matter if it comes down to a marketing war. Maybe porn is the killer app for eBooks, considering people seem keen to carry around erotic home movies in their pockets.

Of course the final question is, do people actually want to ditch paper for an eBook? If you're reading this blog you'll probably say yes because you're more tech-savvy than Joe Public. Still, until Joe Public wants the eBook it's always going to be a niche product.

So what will it take for eBooks to really take off?

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Recent comments

For me what did it was reading a novel in my cell phone. A very nice, and super mobile reading experience.

I was never going to read a whole book on a laptop and hundreds of dollars for the device to buy the eBooks that cost the same as paper books just did not seem reasonable.

You can get free public domain and creative commons books from http://www.booksinmyphone.com The books are packaged up as java programs. You can install direct to the phone from their mobile site or via a PC.

ROG

February 20, 2008

09:36 AM

1. Mobile phones.
the electronic platform for everything now is the mobile phone. So for ebooks to take off properly, the mobile phone needs to upgrade its screen and battery life so you can read text easily and for a reasonable period of time. This will happen very soon. Alternatively, the best way to sell an ebook reader: put a phone in it.
2. Free content
content will become (and largely is already) free at point of use. DRM etc is a losing battle. Watching big companies try to copy protect their stuff is like watching the medieval church suppress printed Bibles. It might be bloody, but you know who's going to win. The business model of 'sell a copy, repeat 10,000 times and watch the cash roll in' is dying fast. Ebooks are part of a new business model which the big publishers absolutely do not get. An intellectual property rights revolution is just around the corner.
3. Always online
Downloading stuff (eg e-books)for future use will become obsolete as we become connected all the time. Within the next five years this will be the reality in urban areas.
4. Nu-lit
New literature is what happens to books when they meet new technology. The codex has thrived for 2000 years or more, but like the papyrus scroll before it, its now going extinct. New technology isn't just the 'platform' for the same old media (eg the book), it actually creates new media. In Japan, the bestselling 'books' were written on mobile phones and designed to be read on mobile phones. The style is weird, but millions of Japanese teenagers don't think so. Ebooks look like books at the moment, but only because we're not using the technology properly. Storytelling, which is what it's about at base, will always find a way; books, not so much.

David S.

February 20, 2008

10:18 AM

eBooks need to be produced for the screens we already have - iPods, mobile phones, Palm Pilots, etc. - not special-purpose devices costing hundreds of dollars that can only be used to read books. I'll pay for a phone/music player/organiser that can also read eBooks but I won't buy a reader-only device for that sort of money. Get rid of DRM, it doesn't work and it just makes legitimate purchasing and use difficult - the last thing you want if eBooks are to take off. Finally, don't let publishers kid themselves that people will pay hardback prices for eBooks! Reduce the price to about 1/3 - 1/2 the price of a paperback and push to sell many times more copies in eBook format than with the old fashioned hb/pb editions. Books have to compete with DVDs, computer games, manga, the internet and other digital content, they can't do that if they come only on dead trees and cost $50 or $60 each.

Norm

February 20, 2008

10:28 AM

Dont think it will ever take off, it will always be offered as an Option. Nothing is as good as reading with a Paperback. No Batteries needed, just the book and you, turning it page by page is an experience and dwelling into the imagination of what it gives us is the joy of reading.

I always enjoy the prospcet of studying and reading with a paperback, although i read alot with ebooks, often more so than paper, but the day that us humans cannot read with a paperback, is the day where our kind will end.

Books last forever, devices last for 3 hours and 26mins

adam

February 20, 2008

10:44 AM

The biggest issue with E-books is "Digital Rights Management", which means importing the E-Book from one device to another can be cumbersome and doesn't work sometimes. You can allways lend a paperback to a friend after your done, but can you do the same with a e-book? Its important to protect copyright, but they have gone too far with DRM, and lack of flexibility. I might as well pay a bit more and buy a paperback which is easier on the eyes, more convenient, and give to someone else to read when i am done. Lets be practical.

Sealy28

February 20, 2008

10:46 AM

Maybe if prices for the ebooks themselves were more reasonable there might be a bigger take up. While some books are available for a modest charge (and some for free), many are still prohibitively expensive. At Fictionwise.com there are ebooks selling for upwards of US$25, and these are not even recent releases - they are books published more than 5 years ago. I would rather buy the paperback version for that sort of money.

simonf

February 20, 2008

11:00 AM

I agree with all the posts, the publishers are overcharging for e-books, the tech companies are overcharging with the devices. It seems everyone's out for a kill trying to market it as a new concept.
There needs to be a intergrated solution of e-books into mobile, i-pod, pda etc... And get rid of the draconian DRM which makes it a real hassle even for legitimate buyers and causes inflexibility. We should embrace technology, but it should be a win - win situation, in this case the consumer looses.

Lexxie Couper

February 20, 2008

11:35 AM

As an author with over a dozen books available in ebook format (and two upcoming print release books) I think the ebook format is a great idea only lacking a great way to 'keep' the books on hand.

I read all my ebooks on my mobile phone (a slightly 'tweaked' iphone), which is fantastic! Don't have to carry anything else in my bag when waiting endless hours at the doctors.

I know ebook readers are much more popular in the US and technology is advancing every second of the day, so hopefully one day soon the ebook revolution will really begin.

heard it all before

February 20, 2008

11:39 AM

ROG's comments are interesting - and I think partly true. But like all extreme scenarios, they usually don't pan out. The car hasn't stopped people running; the TV hasn't killed cinema. Co-existence is the reality. Just because Japanese kids have invented a new reading experience, it doesn't automatically sound the death knell for a pastime that is universally considered rewarding - curling up with a good book. (If young Japanese don't want to do it, good luck to them.)

As for the usual attack on stereotypical publishers - they are not all capitalist pigs. Most take huge risks and do something quite wonderful - encourage good writing by putting dollars in writers' bank accounts. The free model of anything does not - and probably never will - bring out the best in us (I agree with Elton for once!) Ebooks being free will mean more mountains of crap to flip over.

So, back to books.

maria

February 20, 2008

11:41 AM

You can't use electronic devices on planes - so what's the point of taking an ebook reader travelling with you? You'd have to take a real book on the plane too!

As another poster mentioned, because of DRM, you can't download freely onto the ebook reader, so what's the point?

And lastly, ebooks cost the same as paper books - for that price, I might as well have something I can hold and look at!

Yuri Trash

February 20, 2008

11:59 AM

I'm a book fan and will probably always be a book fan, but this aside, there don't seem to be any compelling reasons for someone to jump into e-books at this time. Not when you can pick up a $5 paperback at the local second-hand store. The paperback is portable, cheap, durable, suitable to traditional literary style, and (if needed) disposable. The main advantages of an e-book would be for those who don't have easy access to books or the space, which would include people from the developing world, or non-traditonal content like on Japanese mobiles. At the moment the book readers are just another expensive gadget.

John Leonard

February 20, 2008

11:59 AM

1. E-readers are too expensive and just another thing to lug around.
2. Publishers are on to a loser if they think they can lock up e-books by making it difficult to display common file formats like .doc, .htm. .pdf on them. Most people have plenty of documents on their computers they'd like to read on a more reader-friendly interface, but they won't if difficulties are put in their way. Thus sales for the e-readers will be poor.
3. Manufacturers need a different business model from the proprietary format $25.95 for a self-help management massage new age robo-action novel (or whatever). They are never going to be able to put out the range of titles to satisfy enough people.

Chris

February 20, 2008

12:26 PM

I have a sony ebook reader and absolutely love it. The digital ink technology means its as readable as a normal paperback, and you can change the font size too.

The battery lasts for around 7000 page turns - it doesn't really use power when not changing pages, so there's no problem with leaving it on.

Ebook prices do vary very widely from around US$5 to US$30. I don't buy books from the sony store, but get them from other sites instead. DRM in practice isn't really a problem and there are sites like baen.com that sell their books without any DRM and even have free books as well (generally the first one or two of a series).

I love not having to go to a bookstore anymore, discovering that they don't have a book I want or having to wait days for delivery from online stores.

Ross Carroll

February 20, 2008

12:58 PM

I think the problem is that an e-book is just that. An E-Book. And at this point in time it's very restricted in what it does. Perhaps if it was intergrated in with other functions on one device?

I'd love to have a small thin tablet for use around the house (call it the `HomePad' or the`ipadpod!' ). with maybe an A4 and/or A5 size

It should have High speed Wireless so I can browse the net from my garden chair or read an ebook. It should also be able to support pdf's and other formats (like cbr for comics) and Flash. Ot should have a mic and camera built into it so you can skype with it, and an optional stylus if you want to sketch with it using a program like Art Rage perhaps which doesn't use much memory.

It could have a hard drive so you can take it with you some place and take what you want with it but you could keep a main library on your desktop computer at home. It would have a fold out stand so you can prop it up to read recipes from in the kitchen. (I use a lot of recipes from the net now and waste a lot of paper printing them out.)

If it was a Mac you could access this library/photo album/video library from where ever you are in the world.

I'd read books on one of these things but I wouldn't buy any of the current ebook readers at the moment because they're so limited in what they do and quite expensive for what they are. I want to be able to download a book with colour pics or a pdf online magazine (and I'd even pay for them!) or read a comic I've bought and downloaded from Marvel or DC comics or get the Sydney Morning Herald and not have to sit at my desk to read them on a monitor.

Adam Turner

February 20, 2008

01:34 PM

Ross Carroll, you've just described my dream device. I've been on the lookout for something like that for years. I think we've got to the point where it's technically possible, it's just a matter of a vendor having the guts to run with it. I've been playing with the iPod Touch again and, with the new software enhancements, it's getting closer to this concept but it's still not big enough and doesn't have all the features I want. Let me know if you find this dream device, I'll be second in line to buy one (after you, of course)

Phil H

February 20, 2008

02:45 PM

A printed book costs somewhere around $2 to print, and maybe fifty cents to distribute. (This includes hardcovers which, contrary to popular opinion, cost only slightly more to make than paperbacks.)

Websites for distributing e-Books are quite expensive to set up, but pretty cheap on a per-book basis. However, I don't think you'd get away with less than a couple of bucks per title.

In other words, the distribution medium is always going to be a small part of the final price, so if a publisher is able to sell books electronically, the increase in profits is probably slight-to-none.

And that ignores consumer resistance to a medium which is, frankly, very sub-par compared to print on paper.

Bottom line: if publishers could make a buck out of it, we'd all have e-books by now. They can't, so we don't.

elise A

February 20, 2008

02:55 PM

e-books will never completely take over paper books, you can't read them in the bath, you can't take them to the beach, you can't put them down in the park and run off with your kids. Most importantly, people love to browse bookshops. Second-hand or new, browsing hardcopy books will always be more satisfying than going through the web. I think people have not forgotten Big Brother in Orwell's 1984, once all books go digital there is nothing stopping alterations according to the philosophy of the day. Even with the Newpaper's online, sometimes a story will be there one minute and gone the next.

Sammy01

February 20, 2008

03:03 PM

Problems are:

1. Poor software and hardware with an expensive initial outlay. Basic bookmarking and search can be a chore. Things like printing are crippled just to protect the pubisher's rights at my inconvenience. (Imagine a paper book that went black if you tried to photocopy it!?)

2. Device dependence. No standard format that will work everywhere

3. DRM. If I buy a book I can read it whenever I want with no threat of "rights" being "revoked". I don't have to re-authorize anything, or call anyone either. This point is a key one!!

4. I can sell my book when I'm done with it. I can't do that with an e-book (related to 3).

5. Cost if an ebook reader is lost or damaged is staggering. Your entire collection of books and the reader can run into thousands. Cost of a paper book being lost or damaged is the cost of that 1 book.

6. Unless your ebook reader is your laptop the screen is small and has patheticly poor resolution.

I have a palm pilot I read several free books on, but I prefer my laptop these days. It doesn't fit in my pocket and the cost and damage issues are still there but at least I'm not squinting and going crazy scrolling.

ROG

February 20, 2008

03:11 PM

Thanks, heard it all before.

"ROG's comments are interesting - and I think partly true. But like all extreme scenarios, they usually don't pan out."
\\A few years ago it was 'extreme' to suggest people would abandon their land-line telephones or that the record industry would be in crisis. The extreme happens all the time, but I agree that prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Fun, though.

"The car hasn't stopped people running; the TV hasn't killed cinema. Co-existence is the reality."
\\And you can still find papyrus scrolls in use if you look. In fact walking/running has declined dramatically due to car use and TV is itself in the process of being killed by/merged into the internet. Yes, feet, screens and books will 'always' (co-)exist, but the cultural frontline moves on. I'm just saying that the technology is reinventing books and we're only just beginning to see these huge cultural changes.

"Just because Japanese kids have invented a new reading experience, it doesn't automatically sound the death knell for a pastime that is universally considered rewarding - curling up with a good book. (If young Japanese don't want to do it, good luck to them.)"

\\We do stuff our parents wouldn't have been seen dead doing. We stop doing things they thought would last forever. There is nothing universal about curling up with a good book. It's just a type of technology (I love it too, but so what?). Also, what Japanese kids do today will sweep the world within a few years, by which time they'll be doing something different. Good luck to them indeed. It's true that cosiness is a great feature. They're probably inventing the new cosiness right now, maybe curling up with a good handset. Oh, I don't know, I'm not young or Japanese.

"As for the usual attack on stereotypical publishers - they are not all capitalist pigs. Most take huge risks and do something quite wonderful - encourage good writing by putting dollars in writers' bank accounts."
\\It's not really about capitalism or livestock. I'm suggesting that if it's (partly) about turning a dollar, the big publishers just don't get it, because they're wedded to their existing income streams which are in the process of shrinking. New technologies encourage new business models which can be exploited faster by smaller companies with less to lose. We don't know yet which new models will work best. For my money, paperbacks will get a big new lease of life when ubiquitous print on demand becomes available (free content maybe, but you pay to print it). But then bookshops, as we know them, will be doomed. As for publishers putting money in writers' bank accounts, I'm not sure about this. After all, they keep about 90% of it for themselves. Publishers do a lot that writers probably coouln't do themselves - especially distribution. But if writers could connect directly with readers without it taking up all their time, they probably would. After all, publishers don't really pay writers - the customers do (or am I just being naive?).

"The free model of anything does not - and probably never will - bring out the best in us (I agree with Elton for once!) Ebooks being free will mean more mountains of crap to flip over."
Good point. Completley free doesn't exist. At the moment I go into my bookshop and get free smiles, service, advice, chat, air conditioning, seating and a bookmark... but pay for the book. A future business model might be that the books are free but you subscribe to a distributer that sorts out the crap in a bespoke delivery service. Or the well-known writer might give all their books away but charge $10,000 per public appearance. I don't know, I'm just brainstorming.

"So, back to books."
\\Agreed, but what kind of books? Paperbacks? Ebooks, 'narrative experiences' like World of Warcraft, something else? We're in a state of flux here. I think I'd prefer to say, 'forward to storytelling', but then I can't really see anyone being inspired to storm the Bastille with that little slogan. It's too extreme.

Geoff Leonard

February 20, 2008

03:30 PM

Why not just use the ordinary laptop or the slightly smaller notebook.
I have cataracts and am finding increasingly difficult to read print, albeit the operation is still some time off.
But I can read stuff on my notebook with no problems whatsoever. If the print is too small, I can just blow it up.

But I gather from the material above that ebooks cannot be read on these devices. I am puzzled.

Peter

February 20, 2008

03:30 PM

I can see when talking about ebooks many reviewers and indeed the article separated the ebook software from the actual hardware-reading device. This is good because it is the hardware device that lets the software down and stops it from mainstream acceptance. I refuse to use/buy ebook software because on more than one occasion when I am reading an ebook (in the weekend in the sun) an alert from my device says it is getting too hot and will need to shut down! Certainly don't have this issue with a paperback.

Phil

February 20, 2008

03:37 PM

It all sounds very "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" to me...

Maybe when a company finally invents a "book" made of paper-like screens which can quickly download any known novel or story in the universe, we will then be able to have the best of both worlds- the ability to read whatever we want whenever we want, without any loss of the tactile sensation that is just as much part of the reading process as the visual component and, of course, the imagination...

Go to it, tech wizards!!!

REB

February 20, 2008

05:07 PM

I was convinced 15 years ago (the Newton was making headlines!) that ebooks would soon be taking over the world.

I've been using an e-book reader of one sort or another since 1999.

It started with a Rocket E-Book, then a Franklin Ebookman, then back to (four!) RCA REB-1100's I bought off ebay. All of these devices still work great today.

There is only one reason why the technology isn't a world beater: DRM.

Every single manufacturer of ebook devices also wants to control user's content. Every business model has failed when executives expected to 1.)sell a consumer electronic device to early adopters for top dollar; 2) then sell content at the same price as the paper-equivalent; 3)THEN prevented users from sharing that content.

Attempting to control content rights is the killer of the killer app. It's just text. Information wants to be free.

David

February 20, 2008

05:42 PM

Can the e-book replicate that "new book" smell of a hardback/paperback?

Tony

February 20, 2008

05:57 PM

Most of these comments come from people who do not have an e-reader. They sound remarkably like the sort of comments of people before the PC -

"Why spend thousands for a machine that does what I already do for free with a pen and a bit of paper? It doesn't have the satisfaction of working thinking through problems, screens are not as easy to look at as paper, costs too much, etc"

Or the iPod -

"Why spend hundreds on a device that can't play my CD's when I have hundreds of CD's I already spent lots of money collecting, doesn't have that rich sound of vinyl, doesn't have speakers, too expensive, etc"

I have a feeling the same comments were made when the printing press was invented.

Curling up with a book? Why can't I curl up with my iLiad? How does a lack of paper prevent me curling up?

Preferring to browse a book store? You mean taking the trouble to get there, having to get there in the hours it is open? Online is available 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The digital bookstore is there any time that suits me.

Costs more? Not really. Sure the e-reader is expensive, but once you have it the books are generally a third of the price of hard copy books and there is a mountain of free material from the 20,000 free Gutenberg e-books to RSS feeds from the Internet.
My computer also is expensive to buy, but the benefits I get outweigh the expense. e-readers are the same.

Gotta replace the batteries everty couple of weeks? Whats the problem? I have to do the same with my torch. Is anyone going to suggest we don't use a torch because it uses batteries?

It is a huge benefit to have a device that I can put more memory in and carry a couple of thousand books with me. Imagine having an encyclopedia, dictionary, foreign language phrase books, etc etc etc all in a size that fits in your bag. Imagine a student carrying all their text books in a small plastic device. No more back problems from lugging a back pack full of dead trees with print.

Comments based on the past experience with the poor e-readers of 10 years ago ignore the huge advances made with e-ink. The iLiad is a read/write device. You can do your crossword on it, read a best seller, draw a picture and save a lot of weight while travelling.

Sure past devices didn't sell well, but since Dymocks started selling the new iLiad they haven't been able to keep up with demand and have run out of stock of the devices twice already. It seems the e-reader has finally arrived and like the iPod grew from nothing to dominate music, the e-reader is likely to become a major part of the book market within a few short years.

Andrew Prior

February 20, 2008

06:35 PM

I have palm ereader on my pocket pc and it was on my palms before that. There's about 50 books sitting there at the moment, including a number of reference items. It's a no brainer to convert Gutenberg texts, or other long files to palm format. I find that ereader supplies a huge number of books that are much cheaper than the paper versions. My bookshelf is on line with them as well, so I can re-download anywhere, and the latest version lets you buy online if you want. In the last six or seven years I've done most of my reading this way, on the train, in bed etc

daz

February 20, 2008

08:55 PM

Tony, your moon-eyed tribute to a medium that is dead is pathetic. E-books will never take off because they ignore the simple realities of the book.

1. Books are limited and collectible. A book you bought as a child could be worth thousands now. This is impossible with e-books. See also the comic industry's complete inability to go digital.

2. Your hateful dismissing of the love of curling up with a book leads me to guess that the most complex author you read is Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. So yes, for people like you (read: simpletons) an e-book reader is fine. But you ignore people with actual intelligence who love the tactile feedback of paper, and also bibliophiles. E-books offer these people absolutely nothing and worse, actually take something away.

3. Again, people of substance (read: people unlike you) simply DO NOT WANT their entire life on electronic devices. How would you like to lose your entire library? A single electro-magnetic pulse will take out every book on any device you own. The pleasure of reading is only partly about ingesting words. There is also a very real pleasure that comes from communing with man's greatest invention, the book.

4. The music and movie industries can survive piracy, they have huge markets. The book industry would go under in the face of the same piracy.

E-books? No bloody thanks.

p.s. Witness the newspaper industry in the electronic age. Remember when SMH did NOT have gossip columns and advice on how to get a girlfriend? Yes, that was before it went digital so there is proof that moving to an online format substantially lowers the quality of the product.

CaptainLovePoem

February 20, 2008

09:33 PM

I have been reading ebooks for years on an ipaq pda. There are thousands of titles available for free or purchase in very readable formats like mobipocket or microsoft reader. And I have a library of over a thousand books - classics, encyclopedias, contemporary novels, poetry collections etcetera taking up less than a gig on the sd card. The screen is easy to read, and it's incredibly portable.
As well as serving as a reader the device plays movies, syncs with pc or mac, connects to internet and does most things a computer can, albeit in a pocket format.

Another advantage of the reader as opposed to a paper book is that it is easy to highlight or annotate.

The ipaq makes no fashion statements but it certainly is a versatile device, there are sleeker devices on the market but none seem quite so handy.

fred

February 20, 2008

09:57 PM

ROG in Japan they also have video games where you can simulate sticking your finger in a girl's arse. The Japanese are long famous for inventing millions of things, very few of which make it out of Japan. This is a country that eats whale meat and you think they are a model for us to copy? And because millions of Japanese teens do something we should? Japanese teens are notorious for being blind consumers who rabidly adopt any technology pushed on them. Remember betamax and the Sega Saturn? They loved those things. A culture whose leading export is "Pokemon" is not a culture to be admired.

Martin Aranovitch

February 20, 2008

11:24 PM

As the author/publisher of an ebook that has been selling reasonably well for a couple of years and the promoter of a couple of other ebooks as an affiliate, I have a different view of ebooks.

First of all, there is a market for downloadable ebooks. Converting novels or works of fiction into electronic books is not necessarily the right product for the electronic book market. Technical information and "how-to" guides, however, are ideal products and sell consistently well.

Also, the article focuses on expensive ebook reading devices as a possible cause for ebooks not taking off. Many ebooks are sold as downloadable PDFs, which can be easily opened by just about any computer and viewed directly in the user's browser. The most successful ebooks are also short enough to be easily printable if people need to carry the information around with them.

I recently purchased an ebook about potty training your child quickly, as I was under pressure to get my youngest son potty trained before his first school term commenced in a few days. The fact that I could buy the information online very late at night and be reading it less than a minute after my payment was successfully processed is one of the many benefits of buying ebooks over traditional books.

eBooks also allow many people with unique expertise on a subject to self-publish their knowledge and make it accessible to others in a very affordable and cost-effective way.

I am currently expanding into the audiobook market as well and am noticing that this type of information is also increasing in popularity.

I guess the bottom line from my observations in the business of selling, buying and reading electronic information is that people who are readers by nature and who are constantly hungry for new information will usually try different mediums such as ebooks and audio books and enjoy the benefits of their efficiencies and conveniences and use these together with printed books to expand their access to information and knowledge.

Grant

February 21, 2008

01:38 AM

I personnally think there's a viable place for both traditional books and the ebooks, and clear benefits to both (an ebook for long-dstance journeys certainly makes sense for instance). Frankly, I don't foresee books going the way of the CD or LP largely because of how ingrained the traditional book is our psyche, how much we tend to hold books in affection (unlike CD's, for many of us they're almost a living thing), and that part of the appeal of books is the smell and the tactile quality which a plastic box will never replace.

Frankly, while I see ebooks becoming a significant player in the disposable, small-paperback market, many of the book purchases I make happen to be large format works on topics such as photography and design. I can't foresee ebooks supplanting these because of the content, the presentation, the format and the collectability of such books.

One final point. It may come as a surpise to you but many of us actually love browsing bookstores on a lazy afternoon, often for hours on end. It a wonderful pass-time where one can lose yourself in the printed word, the texture of the paper, and the momentary escape from the noise of modern life. When browsing as when reading, I often turn my mobile phone off precisely because for me as for many others, reading is an escape from the technology that clutters our lives, not an embracing of it.

Yes ebooks will have their place - the conveniences and transportability issue being major factors but many of us enjoy traditional books and the rituals associated with 'discovering' a book despite these 'benefits'.

Ben

February 21, 2008

03:29 AM

Mobile Phones: totally agree.

I've been reading novels on my mobile for the last few years and highly recommend it. Sure, the screen is small and it can be a bit tricky to set it up properly, it's not as ideal as a real book, but once you're reading you tend to forget about that stuff and just focus more on the story. And it's SO convenient, you already have it with you everywhere you go. If your phone has flight mode then reading on planes is fine too. And it's nice to be able to go travelling and take 50 ebooks with you.

Basically, it's not quite as nice as a real book, but this is more than made up for by the convenience. It's a different way of reading, but I find that I get to do more reading because I can just pull it out of my pocket anytime I find myself with some time to spare.

Brett

February 21, 2008

08:54 AM

There is a change in the air, not only the environment but the next generation of "little people" coming through primary school. These will be the ones that will intergrate the best of both and as technology an all in one ebook jumps (I saw one recently that has games,video,reading, music and testing)from a Sydney company, it ain't going to be long before the "little people" will be the "smart people" saving not only the environment and at the same time hopefully showing us how to do it.

Rob Walls

February 21, 2008

09:50 AM

"it retails for $US399 - for which you can buy a hell of a lot of paperbacks"...now that's a bit once- upon-a-time, isn't it? When was 15-20 ever a "hell of a lot"? That's my book reading quota for about 6 weeks. Thank God, for public libraries.

PK Dick

February 21, 2008

10:31 AM

e-Books will probably take off around the same time regular books do. Who reads books at all anymore? Really. Not just over-sized cooking books filled with hyper-realistic gastroporn pictures or collections of hotel photos and gardens. Proper books. It's as dead as idiosyncrasy and decent ABC content.

Luke

February 21, 2008

10:43 AM

I have a reb1100, and I love it to death. When the battery, a sealed custom job that required soldering to replace, dies, I will be devastated. That said, it only took off once the parent company died.

Why?

Because they are too greedy. They try to control too much.

Printing, Storing and distributing (inc transport) are a significant portion of the TCO of a book. These changes are not reflected in ebook pricing.

Books can be passed around. Not so ebooks. DRM restrictions stop that. You can look thru a box in your garage, find a book you havent read for years and re-experience it. DRM means you can't open the file as the ebook company folded, and their servers can no-longer be contacted for their public keys.

for the record, BetaMax was a superior technology to VHS but it never took off (allegedly because adult film studios signed up to VHS technology). But sony knew how to win a format war second time around (Blue Ray vs HD DVD). And the sega saturn was better than anything on the market when released, but sony beat them to the punch by being much more successful in western markets with the playstation, which came out a little time later. Same with panasonic 3D0 - a pretty good piece of equipment at the time but again crippled by price and competition from sony.

To deny Japan as being the cradle of a hell of a lot of technical innovation is crazy. And regarding the pokemon comment - the only reason it is so successful for japan is because people over our way are buying that rubbish. Who is to be admired now - The Japanese selling pokemon or the fools buying it?

@dam

February 21, 2008

01:54 PM

RE : PK Dick on February 21, 2008 10:31 AM

"Who reads books at all anymore? Really. Not just over-sized cooking books filled with hyper-realistic gastroporn pictures or collections of hotel photos and gardens. Proper books."

Brother/sister, I can only picture a redemptive corner to the above remarks beneath the slightly faded, darkly subtle and difficult to read sign marking, 'tougue and cheek met here.'

..?

mak

February 21, 2008

02:14 PM

Trees grow back.

Metal and lcd:
more and more hardware for the waste piles - not to mention factories making them and spewing out stuff.

Save the planet - buy a book. If you don't like it - at least you can bury it in the garden and the worms can read it!

Sax

February 21, 2008

02:50 PM

When I was travelling I found myself with an old HP iPAQ as my only computer for the best part of a year - with a combination of AvantGo (application that collates web sites for easy offline reading) and MS Reader I found I had an absolutely perfectly suitable device for reading. I could get my newspapers wherever I could find a wifi hotspot or internet cafe (including SMH - although the recent changes to the mobile site have turned me right off) anywhere in the world (including the depths of Cambodia) and I had a sizeable collection of books (on one SD card I could store hundreds). It's also perfect for email, but that's another topic.
As long as I charged it up each day (which wasn't difficult) I had the best portable reading device there is. So much better than books - one device held the equivalent of a large bookshelf, I could read in the dark, absolutely awesome. When at home I still like to pick up a paperback but I would never travel without eBooks again.

Actually it's knowledge that wants to be free, not information, and knowledge has never been subject to copyright (only the form in which it's expressed can be copyright).

We know what a world would be like when authors, musicians, moviemakers and other artists can't get paid based on the success of their work. We've seen it in places such as the Soviet Union.

It is not a coincidence that it's in those countries where copyright and DRM is strongest that there is the greatest creative output.

There are people who want to create and their are people who want to read them, listen to or watch them. There may be a few road humps on the way, but eventually a workable system for charging for ebooks will evolve, though it won't be based on abolishing copyright and having no protection systems. And there'll always be people ripping off copyrighted material for free. Even healthy bodies carry parasites.

Ged Maybury

February 21, 2008

05:55 PM

I write books, but I'm lousy at reading them. Used to, but then the print began to get too small and blurry. And I have trouble propping them open somewhere, and keeping my place. And keeping interested.
Oh for a book that never suddenly flopped off the table, or blew shut in the wind, or was too dark to read, or the opposite, and where I could change the font type and size to my favorite (read: visible).
And as a writer who has a pile of stuff sitting at home that mumerous publishers, for 'market reasons' will no longer consider publishing (including the fourth book of my most successful trilogy): oh for the opportunity to send my work to anyone wanting to give it a try (including my existing clientele - if that's the word). I'd sell it at a third the paper-based version no worries. I'd even give you the first chapters free. (Hey, I seldom get past that much of most other writers anyway, unless they really truely grab me.)
Maybe that's what this whole system needs, some sort of public domain trading system. Anyone can offer anything - not just the mainstream conventional already-a-book books.
Just my 2 cents worth
GM

Dajala

February 21, 2008

06:31 PM

@ Luke

You can load custom fonts onto your REB1100 through the librarian.

I own a Sony 505 and will never go back to paper...

Daj.

Shannon

February 21, 2008

08:01 PM

I love my Sony Reader. It's light, slips in my jacket pocket just like a regular book, and it cuts down on my Dead Tree shelving requirements.

I think the market's resistance to e-books is the impermanent feel of it - people want a tangible physical asset to stockpile after they've read it so they can point and say: "There's my value for money, still present and accounted for". A jumble of 0s and 1s shackled by DRM on a flaky hard disk that might pack it in at any time just doesn't seem safe to many people; they can't get past the packrat idea of wanting to hang onto their purchase after it's been read (and will likely never be read again), hang onto it like a trophy to satisfy their notion of ownership.

It's this same sort of mental hoarder thinking that is why downloadable movies are struggling to take off, and may well continue to struggle if there aren't any permanence solutions introduced. Apple iTunes for example has taken off, in part because the packrats can still burn their songs to the comforting permanent media of a CD.

For e-books, the task is harder, as although it could easily be implemented, it's certainly not all that practical or desirable to print out a huge deadwood hardcopy yourself - having said that though, offering that option might appease some of the hoarders and could stimulate the market. It probably won't happen though - DRM and lawyers will see to that - so the market will continue to languish in niche.

The new wave is certainly great for those with free minds unencumbered by traditional compulsions to hoard their assets; breaking that old trend in order to tempt the mass market to switch however will be a difficult job.

heard it all before

February 21, 2008

08:49 PM

Anyone noticed that this blog seems to have evolved (devolved?) in to a quality versus quantity debate?

I have no real take on this, except that it might be why eBooks are having such a hard time catching on.

If no-one is happy to pay well for quality material (but obviously that is absurd, since many are - otherwise bookshops are doomed); then eBooks have a future.

I remain optimistic that both eBooks and books will be with us for a long time hence. But if eBooks hope to really compete, then they must better emulate...books!

And that will mean adhering to quality issues as well as catering for the "Japanese thumb".

David Bennett

February 21, 2008

09:38 PM

The reading of a book in a physical sense is an important part of the act of reading. I study Writing and Cultural Studies, and have read much that gives weight to the sensuality of reading. Having the words in front of you on a piece of paper, the smell, touch, sight are all parts of how we view the novel and why we cherish it. It's similar to why vinyl records have seen a bit of a come back on the market as people want the nostalgia of something in its physical form. They want to be reminded of when, where they were in their lives, and who the text reminds them of. It's about the physicality of the erudite, of academia, of conceptualisation, how context is multifaceted, even in a supposedly metaphysical act of reading. I personally find it hard staring at any form of screen and reading for a long time. There is something archetypally romantic about reading from a novel, touching, turning the pages that i don't think the e-book will ever be able to replace.

My university has gone back to hard copies of our readings as students prefer reading in a physical form, and most print out their readings if they are provided in a virtual form. If the younger generation prefer it, then i'd say the future of the ebook is grim. Books are portable, easy to take with you, much cheaper and thus, the ebook has one of its advantages stripped in terms of marketing.

However, I do think there are niche markets for ebooks and that they will eventually find their place. However, it will not be as big as the ipod due to the fact that music can only be portable with a device to play it.. however, the act of reading does not require a device other than pages, a structure, and the sensation-mentation processes of the human mind and body, and of course an avid reader.

David.

Dave

February 22, 2008

10:16 AM

e-books will work when they smell like a book, read like a book, can be shared like a book, look good on a shelf like a book and e-book readers cost like a pair of glasses. In the meantime, buy a book to read and use the technology for what it's good for, games!

TekGeek

February 23, 2008

09:37 AM

I found a great company online at www.buymedge.com that makes accessory jackets for the Sony Reader (iRex iLiad and Kindle, too!). They have some pretty interesting stuff for personalizing and protecting your eBook.

Richard Dreyfuss

July 20, 2008

05:31 PM

An e-reader should look and feel like an old, much read book, leather or cloth; it should be ergonomicly comfortable,which the Kindle is not;It should scroll the text if you wish it; it should come with a cradle that immediately creates a visible list, afaux library bookshelf, of all the books contained, and all the books ou've finished An electronic mobile tool for reading and transporting books is efficient and necessary, but its a book, and should not be disconnected from its roots, and would be beautiful, appropriately weighty (just because you can do something doesn't mean you should) and you won't have to always be telling people how many, how easy, how good for travel----set it in its cradle and art, in choosable styles, like magic, appears.
A shelf of a Victorian library, including an appropriate space for the book you're reading at the moment.

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Aussies love their gadgets. Mobiles phones, MP3 players, notebooks, GPS, if you can carry it, we’ll buy it. Gadget guru Adam Turner embraces the way of the road warrior, hitting the open highway in search of all things mobile.